India and Pakistan Resist Talks as War Looms

By CELIA W. DUGGER

Published: January 4, 2002

KATMANDU, Nepal, Jan. 3—
With hundreds of thousands of Indian and Pakistani troops facing one other along the full length of their border as the possibility of war looms, the leaders of the two nuclear-armed nations -- who are staying in the same hotel for a South Asian summit meeting -- have made no move to talk about resolving their intractable differences peaceably.

A combination of pride and strategy seems to be getting in the way.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, said recently that Pakistan would not extend an invitation for talks to avoid giving India ''the satisfaction of saying that they have rejected it,'' though Pakistan has long said it is ready for negotiations anywhere, anytime. Asked today about the possibility of a meeting, India's foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, replied simply that Pakistan had not asked for one.

In the last two days, India's leaders have begun talking more openly about the possibility of war if Pakistan does not halt what India considers its longstanding sponsorship of terrorism against India. The current crisis was caused by a suicide squad's assault on the Indian Parliament three weeks ago, and India has accused Pakistan of financing and guiding the Islamic extremist groups that India says carried it out.

Pakistani authorities have responded in the last week by arresting the leaders of the two groups, as well as dozens of their members and freezing the groups' financial assets. Pakistani officials also say the country's military intelligence agency has been ordered to shut down its wing that deals with Islamic militant groups that Pakistan backs in Kashmir.

At a news conference today, Mr. Singh called these ''welcome steps in the right direction.'' For the first time, he also acknowledged that it would take Pakistan some time ''to dismantle all the edifices of terrorism that they have permitted or constructed over the past two decades.''

But it seems India wants immediate action from Pakistan before it is willing to reopen talks on Kashmir, a land the two nations have fought over for more than 50 years.

India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, is scheduled to confer with the leaders of every other South Asian nation participating in this summit meeting except for Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

''Pakistan through its actions has made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible for us to pursue a normal bilateral relationship with it,'' said Nirupama Rao, a spokeswoman for India's ministry of external affairs.

India specifically demanded on Monday that Pakistan hand over 20 suspects wanted on criminal and terrorist charges in India -- a request it forcefully restated today. ''We certainly expect action by Pakistan on the list we have given of proven terrorists, proven criminals, proven narcotics traders,'' Mr. Singh said.

This list -- which Indian officials say they regard as a test of Pakistan's sincerity -- may now have turned into the biggest obstacle to talks, though Pakistan's position on it is not clear.

Mr. Sattar, the Pakistani foreign minister, said in an interview with The Times of India that even though India and Pakistan have no extradition treaty, Pakistan might be able to legally send the suspects to India under an agreement reached by all the South Asian nations.

But a report by Pakistan's official news agency today suggests that General Musharraf, who arrives here on Friday, has taken the position that India should provide Pakistan with the evidence so the suspects can be tried in Pakistan.

Pakistan has repeatedly made an issue of India's failure to provide any evidence to back up its accusations against the groups cited in the attack on Parliament or the 20 listed for return to India.

Mr. Singh responded today that Pakistan's demand for evidence was just a ''subterfuge.'' He read aloud a two-page memo that outlined evidence that India said it gave Pakistan during the last eight years against fugitives wanted for bomb blasts that killed more than 260 people in Bombay in 1993, for the hijacking of an Indian Airlines jetliner in 1999 and other crimes. The evidence he listed included flight manifests, photographs of suspects and information about explosives manufactured in Pakistan and found in the possession of Indian suspects now believed to live in Pakistan.

Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal, the principal information officer for Pakistan, said this evening that he did not know whether India had provided evidence in earlier years, but he was certain none had been given for the attack on Parliament. ''We don't harbor any criminals involved in any terrorist activity in India,'' he said.

The attack on Dec. 13 has brought to a head the festering conflict over Kashmir, a disputed territory with a majority Muslim population that both countries claim. India asserts that Pakistan has encouraged and financed Islamic groups there that have killed thousands of civilians, soldiers and police officers in their holy war against India -- and struck out at Parliament in a direct blow at Indian democracy.

General Musharraf continues to insist that those battling Indian rule in Kashmir are indigenous freedom fighters, not terrorists from Pakistan. But under diplomatic pressure from the United States and Britain and military threat from India, Pakistan's long-fixed position has begun to crack in the last week.

India and Pakistan, home to almost a fifth of the world's population, now seem poised between a war that neither wants and a peaceful settlement that eludes them.

In the course of the summit meeting that officially opens on Friday and ends on Sunday, Mr. Vajpayee, the Indian prime minister, and General Musharraf of Pakistan will spend hours together in rooms where presumably it will be difficult for them to avoid each other -- or the grave matters pressing in on their countries.

One Pakistani official said tonight that even without any official meeting, perhaps they would manage to talk informally. ''They can't spend all that time chitchatting,'' he said, adding, ''They have to sit together, spend time together.''